SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY, 



35 



to arguments for facts derived from men's hopes and beliefs ; it ceases 

 to be science if it refuses to listen to arguments which profess to rely 

 upon facts also. Were there to happen now an event purporting to 

 resemble the Resurrection, it would be necessary to examine the 

 evidence exactly as men are commissioned to investigate any unusual 

 occurrence, say, for instance, the supposed discovery of fertile land at 

 the North Pole. All this is plain enough, and leads to no very impor- 

 tant conclusions, but it is, nevertheless, necessary that it should be 

 stated clearly, and distinctly apprehended. 



Two other propositions may also be laid down as to the nature of 

 the evidence for the Resurrection, both of them once more sufficiently 

 obvious, but still not without their value in leading to a fair and 

 reasonable estimation of the exact state of the case, and tending also, 

 as we shall see presently, in one direction. It may be taken for 

 granted, in the first place, that nothing can be alleged against the 

 moral character of the witnesses, or against the morality which 

 accompanied and was founded upon the preaching of the Resurrec- 

 tion. Mistaken they may have been, but not dishonest ; enthusiasts, 

 but not impostors. Furthermore, the deeper insight into character, 

 which is one of the results of the modern critical spirit, enables us to 

 see that they numbered among their ranks men of singular gifts, both 

 moral and intellectual, who combined in a w r onderful degree the 

 faculty of receiving what was, op what they thought to be, a miracu- 

 lous revelation, and the power of setting it forth in a sober and meas- 

 ured manner. All this is candidly admitted by the best representa- 

 tives of modern thought. 



Again, it may safely be asserted that, judged by the critical 

 standards of historical science, the evidence is abundantly sufficient 

 to prove any event not claiming to be miraculous. Let us suppose 

 such an event as an extraordinary escape from prison related in the 

 same way, though I admit that it requires a considerable intellectual 

 tow deforce to eliminate, even in imagination, the supernatural from 

 the narrative. It is not going too far to say that no real question as to 

 its truth would in that case ever be raised at the bar of history, even 

 though a powerful party were interested in maintaining the contrary. 

 A strictly scientific investigation, for instance, has brought out in our 

 own days the absolute accuracy and consequent evidential value of 

 the account of St. Paul's voyage to Malta. On the whole, then, we 

 may conclude that the testimony is really evidence in the case, that 

 it proceeds from honest and capable men, and that no one, apart from 

 the existence of the supernatural element, would care to deny its truth- 

 fulness, except upon grounds that would turn all history into a mass 

 of fables and confusion. 



There remains, then, the old argument, that it is more easy to 

 believe the witnesses to be mistaken than the fact itself to be true, 

 and that we cannot believe a miracle unless it be more miraculous to 



